Conservative Peer Helped Firm He Held Shares in Land £58 Million Covid PPE Contract

A Conservative peer, who was tasked by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to lead the Government’s personal protective equipment (PPE) programme during the pandemic, helped a company he had financial interests in secure a Government contract worth tens of millions of pounds, newly released correspondence from the Covid Inquiry has revealed.

Back in 2020, a report by the New York Times revealed that Lord Deighton, he had financial or personal connections to seven companies awarded PPE contracts.

One of these was Honeywell Safety Products, which secured a £58 million contract from the Department of Health and Social Care to provide PPE in May 2020.

Lord Deighton held shares in the firm’s parent company – Honeywell International Inc.

It has now been revealed that Lord Deighton held a meeting with “senior” representatives from Honeywell to discuss the firm’s facemask deal on the 27 April 2020. Just 10 days later Honeywell secured a £58million contract to supply the same masks. The deal was awarded without any formal competitive tending process. 

Lord Deighton confirmed in his witness statement issued to the Covid Inquiry that “on 27 April 2020, I held a senior meeting with Honeywell to discuss the high-level plans which were then passed to procurement teams for review”.

The statement also confirms that Deighton was involved in correspondence regarding the “price comparison” of the masks being offered by Honeywell. The Conservative Peer did discuss his investment in Honeywell with senior civil servants, but it was concluded “there would be no conflict, given the relatively small contracts would not move the share price of such a large company”.

Deighton also denied any involvement in approving the contract to Honeywell.

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Lord Deighton Helped “Generous and Loyal Supporter” of the Conservative Party 

Correspondence released by the Inquiry also reveals that Deighton stepped into help a “generous and loyal supporter” of the Conservative party secure a £93 million contract to supply face masks.

An email chain published on Tuesday also reveals that Conservative Peer and party donors Lord Stuart Marks and Haraldur Agustsson lobbied Lord Deighton in the weeks prior to Augustsson’s company Globus (Shetland) UK being awarded a huge PPE contract.

In a remarkable email sent to Lord Deighton by Lord Marks on the 17 May 2020, Marks pleads with Deighton to contact Globus, stating:

“I would be grateful if you could take a look at this. Heraldry is a generous and loyal supporter of the Party and as you will read from his email is making a big commitment to supporting UK manufacturing of PPE”.

Lord Deighton responds within ten minutes and thanks Marks and simply states “will do”.

Six weeks later, in July 2020, Globus (Shetland) UK secured a £93 million contract from the DHSC to supply FFP3 face masks – another contract awarded without any open tendering process 

Emails published by the Inquiry have shed some light on how Lord Marks was introduced to Lord Deighton during this period. 

Lord Feldman, another Conservative Peer, was advising health ministers and Lord Deighton on PPE procurement during the pandemic and in a frank email sent by Feldman to Deighton on the 30 April 2020 introduced Marks as “the wonderful Stuart Marks, the Northern Treasurer of the Party and tech entrepreneur, so a really trusted source”.

Within one hour of receiving the introduction  from Lord Feldman, Deighton responds and suggests a call later the same day with Marks.

Byline Times reported last week on Feldmans work behind the scenes lobbying on behalf of other Conservative-linked PPE firms such as Meller Designs – a “good friend” of Cabinet Minister Michael Gove. 

Lord Deighton and the Department for Health and Social care were approached for comment